Will you be my black friend?

I'm flipping through GQ (I know it's a guys magazine but really there is more to it than half naked pictures of Megan Fox) today and I came across an article titled "Will you be my black friend" so of course I have to stop and read it. The jist of the article was a white guy who realized that he's world was well extremely white. Actually I love the way he describes it:

"I thought: Jesus Christ, there are a lot of white people in this room. I’ve always thought of the whiteness of my adult life as a temporary condition. Like somehow all these white people have been foisted on me; pretty soon it’ll change; it’s probably my wife’s fault. But it’s time to acknowledge that I’ve become a character in a Wes Anderson movie. I wear white tennis sneakers from the ’70s. I listen to ambient music. I have dinner parties where I serve Spanish rosé and this softer version of mozzarella that has a lovely, almost liquid center that you can only get at the Italian import store. I do yoga, and I get excited when it’s ramp season. Sometimes I’d really like to punch myself in the face."

So when faced with a problem what do you do but find a way to fix it. His way of correcting the problem was to post an ad on craigslist entitled "Will you be my black friend?" Creative thinking but not the best way to go about making a friend, perhaps one of the best ways to get punched in the face though. Anyways the article actually goes on to talk about the racial estrangement that is America. Whites to whites, blacks to blacks, asians to asians and so on and so forth. And the fact that we're ok with it. So it got me to thinking, what the hell has this country come to? We're ok with segregation now? Is it ok now because we're doing it ourselves? Just because it's my choice it's ok to stay with my own "kind" now. That's bull people!

Now I count myself as one of the lucky ones. I have friends of all colors, shapes, sizes, orientations and ethnicity's. But what about my friends friends? I realized that I was some of my white friends (and Asian friends and Mexican friend) only black friend and technically I'm only half black! So really you have one half black friend? This does not make you very culturally diverse my friend. Take into account that I'm not nearly "black" enough for most black folks and you're screwed. Now don't get me wrong I'm not advocating going out and counting your black friends. And really would I prefer that when you look at me you just see Julie and not black Julie, of course but lets be real people (except you Steve I actually like that you refer to me as your hot black friend or Brian who refers to me as Chocolate Luscious) As a whole we're a prejudiced country, we see things in shades of black, white, red, yellow and brown. This is how we were raised and its a hard thing to break. As I was growing up I was always aware that my friends were usually two separate groups coexisting along side one another but never really touching. There was always my black friends and my white friends and while I was friends with them both, I could never be friends with them both at the same time and the same place. That's not the way it should be! When I have children (soon God willing cause I'm not getting any younger) I want them to be able to have a diverse group of friends and not worry that the groups don't mix. I want my kids to be able to listen to Kanye West and Tim McGraw and Michael Buble and not have people look at them crazy. Believe me it happens, people do not understand when a black chick karaokes Garth Brooks "Friends in Low Places". They should be able to enjoy a soft mozzarella without being thought pretentious and be able to wear Bass Weejuns (what are these anyway) and not accused or trying to emulate white. This is the world I'd like to pass on to them.

So in summary, white people go out and make a black friend, black people go out and make a white friend and hopefully one day they'll just be your friend. Peace out!